In many cities throughout the world, governments are confronted with serious problems of “land
grabbing” by poor people. As the landless poor flock to the cities, they often find that the only housing
option available is to “squat” — to occupy and live on a piece of vacant land. The slums of most cities in
the world, and nearly all cities in the Third World, are brimming with squatters (see Neuwirth 2005, who
estimates that there are more than one billion squatters in the world today)
No where is this problem more acute than in South Africa.
With the fall of apartheid came the
end of the much hated apartheid restrictions on individual mobility. Consequently, the countryside has
emptied as citizens make their way to the cities in hopes of a better life. The first step toward this better
life, however, is finding a place to live. For many, squatting is the only possibility. Squatting is not new to
South Africa (e.g., Field 2001), but the magnitude of the problem of urban land grabs is enormous,
unprecedented, and growing. Virtually every piece of vacant land in the cities of South Africa is currently
at risk.
Land grabbing is an extremely important problem for the homeless, landowners, and
governments. But land grabbing also presents intricate theoretical issues because it so clearly pits
alternative conceptions of justice against each other. On the one hand, the sanctity of private (or state-
owned) property may justify (make it fair to) removing the squatters from their perches. On the other
hand, the dire need of the squatters may justify land grabbing, especially in the context of the historical
injustices of apartheid and colonialism, and to evict people from their newly constructed homes is to
consign them to live on the streets or worse. Squatting is classically an example of a clash of values (see
Sniderman et al. 1996) — in this case, a clash of perceptions of what is fair. An opportunity is therefore
created to examine how commonsense justice works when competing justice values are at stake.
Understanding the dynamics of the issue of squatting requires understanding how ordinary people
think about justice and injustice, and especially conflicts between competing conceptions of justice. How
0As I write this sentence, Robert Mugabe has launched a new campaign (“Operation Murambatsvina”) to
rid Zimbabwe’s cities of squatters, forcibly removing them to the countryside. It is possible that this
policy could cause even further unrest in Zimbabwe, although some speculate that the president’s motive
is to diminish the supply of urban protesters should the economic and political situation deteriorate
further.
Convention